Mike Knox enjoys having the freedom to be himself in the National Wrestling Alliance.
The veteran previously worked with WWE and TNA/IMPACT Wrestling. Now, he is a featured member of the NWA’s roster. Now aligned with The Cardonas, he will battle Bully Ray in a Tables Match at NWA 74.
In a new interview with WrestleZone ahead of the pay-per-view, Knox described how working with the NWA means a lot to him because he watched it when he was a kid. He noted that he loves how he can be himself.
“Before all this, man, I was a fan, so I watched every little thing I could get my hands on when I was young,” said Knox. “I’m getting up there in age, so NWA was a big deal for me, to be honest. I did a little bit of stuff with NWA right after WWE, I did a little stuff with NWA right after IMPACT, and again I got hurt, I was kinda out of it. I didn’t know if I was gonna work no more, so when I got word from them, it was really a blessing in disguise. It really, really was.
“So what better way, man? What better way to come back? Get in there and rough somebody up. Nobody’s seen me in a while. Did you see me walk right through the crowd? Nobody knew who I was. I was smiling, shaking hands, like, ‘Hey guys, how’s it going?’ I love it, and I get to be myself. I don’t have to play a dumb character, I don’t have to do something like that. I get to be me, which is kinda dangerous. Nobody’s ever let me do it before. Feels pretty nice.”
As Knox noted, he keeps coming back to the NWA. When asked about this pattern, he stated that the NWA’s presentation of wrestling was burned into his mind when he was a younger fan, and he still appreciates it now.
“When you’re a kid and you’re watching these things, it gets burned into your mind,” said Knox. “I remember the no music, I remember the sound stages, I remember all that stuff. Just to be a part of it, and to be something so different in this world, which is explosions and boom, boom, bam, you know what I mean? This is big boys getting down to it. Small crowds, you can hear everything in there, so when you pop somebody, everybody gets to feel it. It’s just different man, it’s different. That’s what draws me back.”
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He also elaborated about having the ability to be himself by recalling how WWE made him cut high-flying moves out of his arsenal and, in doing so, inhibited his ability to get over.
“When I got signed in 2005, I’m a fairly large man. 6’6, 6’7, I was pushing about 270 back then. I could do moonsaults and I could do these big planchas over the top, and this is the way I wanted to work. It wasn’t good for my longevity of course, but I could do all of that, and I wanted to show off. So as soon as they bring me up to the main roster, the first thing they say is, ‘You’re cutting all that out. You gonna cut all that s— out.’ I was like, well why? They gave these speeches like reach for the brass ring, and like I’m get over, brother. They’re like, ‘Hm, no you’re not.’ This is why, and they’re right, I’m some dips— coming out of developmental, big guy, nobody knows who I am.
“If I do something at 6’7, whatever they were billing me at, 275, if I sit there and do a standing moonsault, and then Rey Mysterio does it, and he weighs 150 pounds, like who gives a s— if he does it? This guy sells five million dollars a year in masks and three million in shirts. [The fans] wanted to see Rey Mysterio, they didn’t want to see dips— Mike Knox out there doing backflips.”
The powerhouse also looked back on being forced to play “weird” characters during his time in TNA, and none of these gimmicks remotely resonated with his real personality. Now that he’s in the NWA, Knox has been given the green light to be himself.
“When I went to IMPACT after that, it was, ‘Oh, you’re a biker dude,'” said Knox. “Okay, watch this, you’re a biker guy, cool. Then it was like, ‘Hey man, do you wanna be a circus dude?’ I was like nope, I sure don’t. Too bad, you are anyways. So it’s like I had to do these different weird characters, and they were never even close to what I was, what they saw in the first place when I came out.
“It’s always been force-fed this garbage, and the first thing they said when I came to the back [in the NWA] was like, ‘We don’t want you to try to be anything that you’re not. We’re not gonna tell you that you can do anything or you can’t do anything. We’re gonna turn you loose, which I bet they’re sorry that they did that.”
As someone who has been in the business for 25 years, Knox noted that he has gained plenty of experience, and he takes pride in still being good at what he does.
“I’ve been in the business for 25 years, and in that time, I’ve been all over the place, wrestled all kinds of different people,” said Knox. “There ain’t nothing you gonna throw at me that I haven’t seen 100 times. But now I get to be natural, instead of having to figure like, ‘Oh gee, what would a circus man do?’ Or a biker man can’t do a move here, he just gotta kick and punch. I’m old, I’m a little beat up, but what I do now, I do very well and very violently, and I’m pretty damn proud of this little run that I got going on here.”
NWA 74 will be held on August 27 & 28 from The Chase in St. Louis, Missouri. Check out our full video interview with Mike Knox at the top of this post.
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